…a new analysis of clinical trials for pain medication shows that the placebo effect in [the area of pain relief] has been getting stronger. The same also seems to be true for antipsychotics and antidepressants, but this effect seems to be mainly (or only) visible in large-scale US trials…

The emphasis (italics) is mine, because that’s what struck me. The placebo effect is controversial, but seems real, at least in some areas. This finding, if it holds up, suggests perception of modern medicine — in the USA — is psychologically significant (and does support the reality of placebos).

The whole area of mind-over-body interests me. I’ve heard about ice cubes raising burn blisters on blind-folded test subjects who believed they were being touched by something hot. The degree of power of our belief to affect our body is an intriguing question.

Certainly you can will your muscles to operate. What else might it be possible to will?

It just fascinating reading about high-energy nitrogen compounds that explode if you look at them wrong, compounds so scary it’s amazing anyone works with them, and compounds so smelly they can scar you psychologically for life.

Despite being relatively unknown when Theo Epstein signed him, David Ortiz ended up being perhaps the greatest acquisition of the young GM’s career

Ben Cherington is gone, and, for the first time since the fall of 2002, the Red Sox face a regime change in the front office. Cherington, of course, was one of Theo Epstein’s top lieutenants, and when he took over the team, it was apparent that he would be following in Theo’s footsteps, and continuing his philosophy. Much as with new president Dave Dombrowski today, when Epstein was hired as the first regular GM of the John Henry ownership group, replacing interim GM Mike Hazen, it represented a clean slate, a new direction for the team. But what was it that allowed Epstein to turn around years of losing in only a few seasons?

Theo Epstein was named general manager of the Boston Red Sox on November 25, 2002. Within two full calendar years, he would lead the team to their first World Series championship since 1918. By 2007, they won again, this time with a team that could truly be called Theo’s. In October 2011, Epstein left the Red Sox to become the President of the Chicago Cubs, reportedly enamored with the idea of breaking the Cubs’ own World Series drought. But what was it about his strategy in the front office that made his teams so successful? Epstein is remembered as having a spotty record on free agent signings, such as John Lackey and Carl Crawford, later in his career, and the, arguably, biggest trade of his tenure, Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, happened while he was briefly resigned from the team. Let’s go transaction by transaction and examine how he built his teams, starting with his first, the 2003 Red Sox, who featured the best offense in the American League before being eliminated from the playoffs on an Aaron Boone home run.

WAIVER CLAIM – 11/27/2002 – Claimed RP Ryan Rupe off waivers from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Rupe only pitched 10 innings for the Red Sox, and was worth about -0.2 wins above replacement, before becoming a free agent at the end of the year. He would not throw another pitch in the major leagues.

RELEASED – 12/06/2002 – Released RP Wayne Gomes, who had been signed as a free agent the previous season. It is unclear what his contract was, but Gomes never again pitched in the majors, so no production was lost.

TRADE – 12/12/2002 – Acquired 2B Todd Walker from the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for two players to be named later, who ended up being 3B/LF Tony Blanco and P Josh Thigpen. Blanco was worth -0.8 WAR in 2005, his only season in the majors, and Thigpen never made it to the big leagues. As for Walker, he would be the Red Sox primary 2B throughout 2003, hitting .283/.333/.428, worth 1.1 WAR, which would have been higher, except for below average defensive numbers. Walker only had one year left on his contract, and became a free agent at the end of 2003. The net WAR value of this trade was +1.9, and Epstein’s running total net WAR is +1.7.

TRADE – 12/15/2002 – Acquired 1B/OF Jeremy Giambi from the Philadelphia Phillies for P Josh Hancock. Hancock never enjoyed extended success in the majors, and was only worth only 0.2 WAR over the life of his contract. Giambi performed poorly with Boston, worth -0.3 WAR, and was released at the end of the season. Again, as with the Walker trade, Epstein tried to trade spare parts for bargain bin players who he felt could make an impact. This time, it didn’t work out, with a net trade value of -0.5 WAR. Running total: 1.2.

RULE 5 – 12/16/2002 – Selected RP Javier Lopez, RP Matt White, and OF Adrian Brown in the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft. White was worth -0.3 WAR to the Red Sox, before being traded in June. Lopez, who went on to have a very good career, and even spent time with the Red Sox, was traded in March, before throwing a pitch for the Sox. Brown was also returned before the season, although his team, the Devil Rays, released him, at which point the Red Sox resigned him. For the purposes of this transaction, none of the players amounted to much for the Red Sox, leaving a net -0.3 WAR. Running total: 0.9

TRADE – 12/16/2002 – Traded minor league INF Luis Cruz to the San Diego Padres in exchange for SS Cesar Crespo. Another minor trade, although Epstein didn’t get much out of this one either, with Crespo being below replacement in his one year in the majors with Boston, 2004, putting up -0.4 WAR. Cruz, thankfully for the Red Sox, didn’t make the majors during his initial contract. Even so, the net result of the trade was -0.4, putting his running total down to 0.5.

FREE AGENT – 12/18/2002 – Signed UTIL Damian Jackson to a one-year contract. Jackson was a useful player for the Red Sox, playing both middle infield and all three outfield positions in his one year with the team. He’ll probably be best remember for colliding with Johnny Damon during the ALDS, which caused him to miss the beginning of the ALCS, and struggle upon his return. Leaving out the injury to Damon, WAR still didn’t like Jackson’s performance, putting him at almost exactly replacement level, at -0.1 WAR for the year. Running total: 0.4

FREE AGENT – 12/29/2002 – Signed RP Ramiro Mendoza to a two-year contract. Relievers, due to the small number of innings that they pitch, generally don’t contribute a lot of WAR to a team, and Mendoza had a rough 2003, with a 6.75 ERA, and 5.03 FIP, but he bounced back enough in 2004 to post 0.2 WAR over his time with the Red Sox. Running total: 0.6, which means in the first month of his tenure with the team, Epstein only managed to add about half a win to the Red Sox future success. You can very clearly see the Moneyball influence on Epstein’s decisions up to this point: Remember, he only got the job after Billy Beane turned it down, and John Henry was a big fan of the way Beane ran his team. So far, Todd Walker only one of Theo’s acquisitions to pan out.

WAIVER CLAIM – 01/14/2003 – Claimed 1B Kevin Millar off waivers from the Florida Marlins. Millar had been placed on waivers by the Marlins in order to complete a sale to the Chunichi Dragons of the Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League, but the Red Sox blocked the deal by claiming Millar, violating an unwritten rule of the time. After the dust settled, the Red Sox had acquired their starting first basemen for the next several years, giving up only cash. Millar was worth 5.0 WAR during his tenure with Boston, giving Epstein his most successful move to date, and a running total of: 5.6. However, Epstein was not done.

FREE AGENT – 01/14/2003 – Signed free agent 3B Bill Mueller to a two-year contract with a team option for 2005. The same day he claimed Millar, Epstein signed his starting 3B, who would go on to win the batting title in 2003 and put up 10.1 WAR over his three years with the Red Sox. Running total now 15.7.

WAIVER CLAIM – 01/17/2003 – Claimed INF Earl Snyder off waivers from the Cleveland Indians. This depth claim didn’t end up paying dividends, as Snyder had only four at-bats for the Red Sox, and was worth -0.1 WAR. Running total 15.6.

FREE AGENT – 01/22/2003 – Signed 1B David Ortiz to a one-year contract. Ortiz had spent the first six years of his major league career as a part time player with the Twins. Rather than pay him a raise in arbitration, after he had hit .272/.339/.500 with 20 home runs in 2002 (Practically MVP numbers in today’s MLB environment, but only worth 1.3 WAR in 2002) at the age of 26, they opted to release him. This is the deal that probably most defined Epstein’s tenure with the Red Sox, but it’s easy to see how it fit into the context of his other early moves. Like Walker, Millar, and Mueller, Ortiz was a player who did not have a lot of present value, but had upside, and was willing to sign a short term deal. Epstein zeroed in on these types of players, and while some of them, like Giambi, didn’t work out, others did. If they don’t work out, you don’t have a lot invested in them, and like with Giambi, it is easier to cut ties than, say, someone you’ve just signed to a 10-year, $200MM deal. Ortiz is the cream of the crop that worked out, putting up a whopping 46.3 WAR, so far, during his Red Sox career. With this signing, Epstein’s running total is up to 61.9.

FREE AGENT – 01/23/2003 – Signed 1B Dave Nilsson to a minor league contract. Nilsson hadn’t played in the majors since 1999, and didn’t come close to sniffing them as a Red Sox.

FREE AGENT – 01/23/2003 – Signed RP Hector Almonte to a one-year contract. Almonte was awful in 7 innings with the Red Sox, putting up a spectacularly bad 8.22 ERA (5.90 FIP), before being released. Almonte was worth -0.1 WAR, bringing Epstein’s running total to 61.0. Recent signee Earl Snyder was also designated for assignment as a result of this signing, but he cleared waivers and was demoted to Pawtucket.

WAIVER CLAIM – 02/04/2003 – Claimed SP Bronson Arroyo off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Another example of a seemingly minor move that paid big dividends, and would have been even better for the Red Sox if they hadn’t traded Arroyo to Cincinnati for Wily Mo Pena in 2006. Arroyo pitched six games out of the bullpen in 2003 before joining the rotation full-time part-way through 2004, compiling 5.7 WAR along the way. Running total: 66.7

FREE AGENT – 02/22/2003 – Signed RP Robert Person to a minor league contract. Person did end up pitching for the Red Sox in 2003, the last year of his career, but didn’t do particularly well, and was worth -0.2 WAR. Running total: 66.5

TRADE – 03/18/2003 – Epstein traded Rule 5 pick Javier Lopez, who had failed to win a spot in the bullpen, to Colorado for Ryan Cameron, who would never make the majors. Lopez would eventually become a solid reliever, but not until 2007, when he was back with the Red Sox. After a good season in 2003, Lopez was awful in 2004 and 2005, before hitting free agency. Epstein actually managed to save -0.7 WAR by trading Lopez away. Running total: 67.2

WAIVER LOSS – 03/25/2003 – Lou Merloni claimed by San Diego Padres. Sweet Lou didn’t make the team in 2005, and was designated for assignment, only to be claimed by the Padres. At the end of August, the Padres would trade Merloni back to the Red Sox for minor leaguer Rene Miniel, who never reached the majors, but in the meanwhile, Merloni produced 0.2 WAR that the Red Sox missed out on. Running total: 67.0

Besides the waiver claim of Dicky Gonzalez, who was designated for assignment days later and would never play a game for the Red Sox, that sums up Theo Epstein’s first offseason with the club. Looking back, it appears that he made a handful of extremely shrewd moves, such as the signings of Ortiz and Mueller, and the claims of Millar and Arroyo, but those moves are surrounded by a dozen similar moves that never bore any fruit, including three Rule 5 picks, more than he would ever make again. It seems that Theo’s strategy, while he definitely found some gems, was about grabbing as many talented players as possible, throwing them against a wall, and seeing what stuck. Ortiz, the biggest haul of the offseason, didn’t even play full-time until June, when manager Grady Little benched Giambi, so the idea that Epstein and his front office were geniuses who saw his true potential when others does not doesn’t seem to hold water.

However, this isn’t to say that this isn’t a good method of building a team, especially, when you already have solid building blocks in place. Left over from the Dan Duquette era were several star players, including Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, Trot Nixon, and Nomar Garciaparra to round out the lineup, and Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, Casey Fossum, and Derek Lowe heading the rotation. That’s a solid core to build around, and Epstein’s strategy shows he knew what he was doing. That lineup needs a first baseman, a third baseman, a second baseman, and a designated hitter. Epstein grabbed Mueller, a known quantity coming off some very good years with the Giants, to play third. Walker, Jackson, and Crespo were all signed with the idea that one could be the everyday 2B. Millar, Ortiz, Giambi, and Snyder were all brought in to split time between 1B and DH. The idea was not that every one of these moves would have worked out, but that enough of them would to field a competitive team, which is exactly what happened.

Today, the Red Sox have a very solid core, with Blake Swihart, Ryan Hanigan, and Christian Vazquez behind the plate, Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia up the middle, and an outfield of Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Rusney Castillo. Not to mention super-utility man Brock Holt. Dave Dombrowski will face interesting decisions on how to fill the remaining holes, with Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez currently slated to man the corners, and a starting rotation that, right now, looks like Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley, Eduardo Rodriguez, Joe Kelly. Travis Shaw and Holt provide depth in the infield, and Henry Owens, Steven Wright, and Brian Johnson could all compete for rotation spots. Rather than a massive rebuild, Dombrowski might do well to take a few pages out of Epstein’s book, and look to supplement the depth he already has. Perhaps sign or trade for a left-handed corner outfielder to split time with Castillo, a starter or two, and some bullpen pieces, and you could have a very nicely constructed team, with the best farm system in baseball behind it. Notice that none of the moves Epstein made in his first offseason could be considered major trades, or big money free agent signings. Two years later his team were champions. Three years after that, they were champions again, this time supplemented by some of the prospects he didn’t trade away: Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jon Lester.

The latest is the cover-up by Christ Church who invoke their own Ecclesiastical law to get Neelu and Christine arrested because they had been demonstrating outside the church. They spent a weekend in a cell before being seen in court.

It’s hard to tell the full story as it is going on and after an excellent overview was taken down, based on information from a known paedophile… The hosting company knows whom to trust and believe…

Tier 4: One Win Away

How they finished: 95-67, 2nd in the AL East, lost in ALCS to TB in 7Team MVP: Dustin PedroiaTeam LVP: Mike Lowell’s HipAKA: “I Can’t Believe We Just Lost to Tampa”

Easily the most effective of Boston’s three 21st century title defenses, though they were plagued by injuries and in season roster turmoil. Manny Ramirez, after half a decade of occasionally sulking and being in off and on trade talks was finally dealt after things spiraled out of control in a mid-July series against the Angels when Ramirez refused to run out ground balls and was generally too much for anyone to deal with. The Red Sox ended up with Jason Bay, and while Ramirez went on a Bondsian (in more ways than one) tear once arriving in Los Angeles, in retrospect the Sox probably got, like, 85 cents on the dollar for their oft-disgruntled star. Bay played well in his 49 games with the team, posting .293/.370/.527 splits and simply not being Manny out in left. The lineup was also buoyed by MVP Dustin Pedroia, who led the AL in hits, runs, and doubles while finishing second to Joe Mauer for the league batting title as well as Maybe-Should-Have-Been-The-MVP Kevin Youkilis, who clubbed 29 HR and posted a 144 OPS+. Injuries to David Ortiz, Mike Lowell, and JD Drew (who actually carried the team offensively with a monster 1.309 OPS in the month of June) limited the team come playoff time, and while the Sox went out and acquired Mark Kotsay and used Jed Lowrie and Sean Casey extensively to cover the damages, the result wasn’t quite the same. Josh Beckett, after a 20-win 2007, showed up to spring training looking less than fit, and struggled with injuries as well.

This was the last season in a six year stretch where the Red Sox were one of the toughest outs in postseason baseball, coming back to win from down 0-2 in the 2003 ALDS, 0-3 in the 2004 ALCS, 1-3 in the 2007 ALCS, and forcing a Game 7 in the 2008 ALCS after falling in a 3-1 hole. Trailing by 7 runs in Game 5, the Sox mounted an incredible comeback capped off by an RBI single by Drew. This time, the series comeback fizzled in Game 7, where the lack of Mike Lowell and over-reliance on mediocre replacements caused the offense to sputter at the worst possible moment. Despite that disappointment at the Trop, the 2008 Sox were solid across the board, and one of the better defensive teams of the century. They were good, but they didn’t quite have as much talent as the team just ahead of them in the rankings.

How they finished: 95-67, 2nd in the AL East, lost in ALCS to NYY in 7
Team MVP: The entire lineup.Seriously.Team LVP: Grady LittleAKA: Either “Cowboy Up!” if you like to look at the glass half full, or “Rock Bottom” if you’re a Red Sox fan old enough to remember what it was like before 2004

The 2003 Red Sox are far and away the most potent offensive team on this list. This was Boston’s modern day Murderer’s Row, a team that could score, and score, and score, and were perfectly happy trying to win every game 9-7. They posted an absurd team ISO of .202, hit a Red Sox record 238 home runs, and averaged (that’s right, averaged) 5.93 runs per game. This was the year Theo Epstein took over as GM, and he laid the groundwork for future championships by bringing in guys like Kevin Millar, Bill Mueller, and of course David Ortiz. The result: a lineup that was so-so the prior year transformed into the most prolifichittingteam team since the turn of the century. Check out the most common batting order from that season (OPS+ in parentheses):
1. Johnny Damon (94)
2. Todd Walker (95)
3. Nomar Garciaparra (121)
4. Manny Ramirez (160)
5. David Ortiz (144)
6. Kevin Millar (110)
7. Trot Nixon (149)
8. Bill Mueller (140)
9. Jason Varitek (120)
Those numbers are insane. 7 of the 9 regulars were at least 10% higher than league average, and the only two that failed to reach an OPS+ of 100 (Damon and Walker) were still just above league average. Pitching-wise they were less impressive with a middling starting rotation featuring a Pedro Martinez who was lights out for the first six innings or 100 pitches, but could not be trusted past that point (as the Grady Little would find out in October), Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield, and anchored in the loosest sense of the word by John Burkett, Casey Fossum, and midseason acquisition Jeff Suppan, who promptly posted a 5.57 ERA for the remainder of the season. The bullpen went with the now infamous “closer by committee” strategy, which worked out not so well. The ‘pen was 28th in the MLB in ERA and was one of the reasons why Pedro was left in on that fateful October night.

But what was most impressive about this team was that they were, for all intents in purposes, the one that started it all. Though they lost in heartbreaking fashion to Yankees and Aaron Effing Boone, they instilled a never say die attitude with their comeback against the A’s in the ALDS and forcing a Game 7 against the Yankees in the ALCS after falling behind 3 games to 2. They were incredibly talented, and the massive failure that was October 16th, 2003 set the stage for everything that happened the next season.

Tier 5: The Champs

How they finished: 97-65, 1st in the AL East, won WS over STL in 6Team MVP: The Beards/Team ChemistryTeam LVP: Joel HanrahanAKA: The Impossible Dream Redux”

Following 2012’s disaster, the Red Sox decided to do a complete 180. Gone were some of the big money stars that were the face of 2011’s collapse and 2012’s implosion. In their place were bargain buys like Mike Napoli, Koji Uehara Shane Victorino, and Jonny Gomes. The team won a couple of games, then won some more, then kept winning, and kept winning, and before anyone really knew what was going on the Red Sox had cruised to a first place finish in the AL East. The team knocked off the Rays, outfoxed the Tigers. and ripped off three straight wins to close out the Cardinals to win the World Series. That’s the simple version of the story at least. This team was a team that nobody saw coming and caught everyone by surprise. David Ortiz was a monster all season long, and when it came time for the postseason, he did what Big Papi does best, saving the season when it seemed like all hope was lost. At the end of the day this was a team that combined both elements of 2004’s quirky characters and 2007’s cold efficiency.

What was most intriguing about this team was not necessarily that they won, but how they did it. They have the third highest wRC+ of any Red Sox team this century, and they were able to do that not through a barrage of 3 run homers like Sox teams past, but with speed and doubles. Jacoby Ellsbury and Shane Victorino combined at the top of the order to wreak havoc on the bases, and the rest of the team, while not necessarily spectacular basestealers, were heady runners. The result was a BsR (baserunning rating) of 11.3, fifth in the majors that year and the best of any Red Sox team, not just of the 21st century, but ever. Combined with a lineup that ground pitchers to a pulp thanks to guys like Napoli and Daniel Nava who averaged 637 pitches per at bat (a rough guess on my part), this Sox squad was difficult to deal with. Everything went right for the Sox this season, and while Jon Lester was the only pitcher to top 200 innings, the rest of the staff chipped in just enough high quality innings to get by, especially Clay Buchholz, who started the season 9-0 with a 1.71 ERA before getting injured in June and not returning until September, and Koji Uehara, who was about as automatic as it got after rescuing the closer role from the Andrew Bailey/Joel Hanrahan crap sandwich in June. While I may have ranked them third among the championship teams, it’s important to indicate that this team was every bit as good as the either two.

How they finished: 96-66, 1st in the AL East, won WS over COL in 4Team MVP: Josh BeckettTeam LVP: Eric GagneAKA: “So Much For Another 86 Years”

While the 2004 and 2013 teams caught everyone by surprise, the 2007 championship almost never felt in doubt. The 2007 Red Sox have the highest Pythagorean W-L of any other Red Sox team in these rankings at 101-61. As I pointed out in the 2013 section, the 2007 team was a highly efficient machine, especially with regards to their pitching staff. Josh Beckett had his best season as a member of the Sox, posting a 3.08 FIP while finishing second in the AL Cy Young chase to CC Sabathia. Beckett was a superhuman in the playoffs as well, winning all four of his starts with an ERA of 1.20. Curt Schilling nearly threw a no hitter in June until he famously shook off Jason Varitek and promptly allowed a hit with two outs in the ninth. Daisuke Matsuzaka led the team in IP, even though his up and down season proved indicative of what was to come the rest of his career. The Red Sox staff as a whole was excellent, finishing with the best team ERA in the AL despite finishing in the middle of the pack defensively. Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon were automatic in the 8th and 9th innings, leading the bullpen to the second best ERA in the majors despite deadline acquisition Eric Gagne’s attempts to completely undermine the entire season.

While the pitching was indeed excellent, the lineup was a force as well. Sure, the whole Julio Lugo thing didn’t quite work out and the bench was weak enough that Bobby Kielty was considered a huge get during the post-trade deadline waiver period, but World Series MVP Mike Lowell had a career year at the plate, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia were an excellent 1-2 tandem at the top of the lineup, and David Ortiz set career highs in BA (.332) and OPS (1.066). 2007 was the final season of a four year run for Big Papi where he terrorized major league pitching. Ortiz averaged 44 HR, 135 RBI, and 42 doubles a season over that stretch, while posting a line of .304/.408/.616 and an OPS+ of 159. Ellsbury made his major league debut late in June, and provided a late season boost thanks to his offensive dynamism, even jacking Coco Crisp’s spot in the starting lineup by Game 6 of the ALCS. In the postseason the Red Sox handled the Angels and the Rockies in the ALDS and World Series, respectively. Though they ran into some trouble with the Indians in the ALCS, falling behind 3 games to 1, they rallied back with three straight wins, outscoring the Indians 30-5 in Games 5-7 and capped off with a sneaky legendary catch by Crisp to clinch the pennant. And yet, though this team was certainly great, they never felt quite as good as the hands down best team on this list.

How they finished: 98-64, 2nd in the AL East, won WS over STL in 4Team MVP: EveryoneTeam LVP: No one. Seriously. I can’t think of anyone.AKA: “The Curse Reversed”

As if there was going to be any other Red Sox team in the top spot. I mean, forget the last 15 years, this is the best Red Sox team of all time. It isn’t particularly close. Forget their on field performance for a minute. This team had to overcome 86 years of tortured franchise history and a rabid fanbase desperate for a championship. They avenged last season’s heartbreak to their arch nemesis in the sweetest way possible. They, unlike so many previous incarnations of the Red Sox before them, actually finished the job. And they did all of this while being the most likable group of guys to ever put on a Red Sox uniform thanks to things like “Why not us?” and Nelson and everything Kevin Millar said and did during the ALCS. To quote SNL’s Stephon, this team had everything.

As I mentioned earlier, this team could not have happened without everything that happened in 2003. Epstein sought to solve all of that team’s problems in the following offseason. The Sox needed a second top flight pitcher to go with a declining Pedro Martinez? Enter Curt Schilling. Last year’s bullpen by committee was an utter failure? Let’s go get Keith Foulke. Our infield defense was a disaster? Out with Todd Walker, in with Pokey Reese (and yes I linked that catch because it never gets any love even though Derek Jeter made the same catch look 1,000 times more difficult in that same game and was deified for it even though he didn’t have to range as far). And yet even with the changes, the Red Sox were only 52-44 on July 24th. That night, the Red Sox beat the Yankees 11-10 in extras in “The A-Rod Game“. Suddenly the team had a spark. On July 31st, Epstein made waves yet again with the blockbuster trade that sent away a sulky Nomar in exchange for Orlando Cabrera, Doug Mientkiewicz and Dave Roberts. From that moment on, the ’04 Sox played like a completely different team, going 21-7 in August and 42-18 overall down the stretch. Unlike so many teams before them, the Red Sox got better as the season went on instead of wilting, a trend that continued into the postseason with the greatest comeback in baseball history against the rival Yankees in the ALCS. The Sox ripped off 8 straight wins after falling behind 3-0 to New York, with heroics from seemingly every player on the roster from Ortiz, Ramirez, and Schilling to Roberts (obviously), Mark Bellhorn and Curtis Leskanic. That’s why there’s no singular MVP with this team. Everyone played a tremendous part.

Statistically, this team has an excellent argument for the top spot as well. They had an offense that produced only slightly below that of 2003’s historic lineup, and a pitching staff and defense (especially once the Nomar trade went down) that was much improved from the prior season. The only real weakness on this team was on the basepaths, They were second in the AL in team FIP, and with Foulke anchoring the ‘pen they jumped from 28th in reliever ERA in 2003 to 11th. These subtle improvements bumped the team from a very good team to a championship caliber one. The 2004 team was more talented than 2013’s team, and had far more character than in 2007. When it’s all said and done, they are not only the most important Red Sox team of the 21st century, they are also the best.

With only 8 days to go before the pitchers and catchers (finally) report to Fort Meyers, and with the truck officially on its way to Florida, you can almost feel spring in the air. Unless of course, you live in the New England area, where you can’t feel anything because you’ve been shoveling nonstop for the past three weeks and your hands are numb from frostbite. That being said, the Boys of Summer are almost back in business, hoping to avenge last season’s less than stellar title defense in their attempt to go from worst to first to worst back to first. While we wait for the snow to melt and for the Red Sox to get back to work, it’s at least worth noting that this has been a run of success by the club not seen since the beginning of last century. Sure, there have been bumps along the road, but it’s safe to say that these last 15 seasons have been, generally, quite successful. Without further ado, let’s rank them in order from best to worst, because what else is there to do in February a week before Spring Training starts?

Tier 1: The Cellar Dwellers

How they finished: 71-91, 5th in the AL East, missed postseason
Team MVP: Brock Holt
Team LVP: A.J. Pierzynski
AKA: “Worst to First”

I’m going to lump these two seasons together because not only are they the two last place bookends on the Red Sox’s 2013 championship run, but also because they are the two worst baseball teams I can remember supporting, though the way in which they were bad were markedly different from each other. 2012 was, for all intents and purposes, the year from hell. Following 2011’s epic collapse and the firing of two of the administrative cornerstones (Theo Epstein and Terry Francona) of the only two championship teams the franchise had seen in over 90 years, the Sox decided the time was right to place their fate in the hands of Bobby Valentine. The result? The Red Sox had their worst season in 52 years, with players constantly at odds with their new manager leading to this leaked video of the team clubhouse in mid-May. Fortunately, new GM Ben Cherington was able to somewhat salvage things by blowing up the roster and freeing up a ton of the budget with the Gonzalez/Crawford/Beckett megadeal that set up the following season’s title chase. 2014 was less hectic but the on field product was equally pathetic. After everything went right the previous year, nothing did in Boston’s title defense. A punchless offense (they posted the franchise’s lowest team wRC+ of the century) and a midseason firesale depleted the Sox of much of their talent, and they sank slowly and surely to the bottom of the standings.

Tier 2: The 80 Win Club

How they finished: 82-79, 2nd in the AL East, missed postseason
Team MVP: Manny Ramirez
Team LVP: The Disabled List
AKA: “Jinxed and Cursed”

Everyone is going to remember this season as the one where Nomar’s career changed for the worse and Pedro’s body finally began to give out, and rightfully so. In what seemed like one fell swoop, the franchise’s two cornerstones over the previous several seasons were wiped out. Garciaparra was injured by a fateful fastball in spring training by then Orioles pitcher Al Reyes, breaking the shortstop’s wrist one week after the infamous “A Cut Above” SI Cover was published. Nomar played only 21 games all season long, and was never the same following the injury. As if it wasn’t bad enough losing Nomar, the Sox lost Pedro to a shoulder injury, and Martinez only started 18 games. Like Nomar, Pedro was never quite the same follwing this season. But those weren’t the only two players to get hit with the injury bug; no Red Sox pitcher topped 200 innings, and only Hideo Nomo, who threw a no hitter against the Blue Jays in his Red Sox debut that I only vaguely remember, made more than 30 starts. Joe Kerrigan took over the team in interim after manager Jimy Williams was fired mid season, and the club promptly went 17-26 the rest of the way. The lesson to be learned here is never to let Joe Kerrigan finish anything, especially not a Major League season. The best part of this season was Dante Bichette’s bat twirl and Carl Everett confessing he doesn’t believe in dinosaurs. Oh, and Manny Ramirez beginning his Red Sox career by hitting home runs likethese and tossing up a .305/.406/1.014 line. So maybe it wasn’t all bad.

How they finished: 86-76, 3rd in the AL East, missed postseason
Team MVP: David Ortiz
Team LVP: Carl Crawford (Yes I know that happened in 2005, but it ruined Clement’s career, so I’m carrying it over)
AKA: “Desperate Times Call for a Mirabelli Police Escort”

After a ridiculous offseason where Theo Epstein quit, then maybe didn’t quit, was seen roaming around Boston in a gorilla costume, and was possibly behind the scenes orchestrating the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell/Hanley Ramirez and Bronson Arroyo/Wily Mo Pena blockbusters, the Red Sox finally got down to buisness. Of course, when you’re dealing with Even Year Beckett (seriously, go look at that guy’s stats and see the disparity between his odd year performances and his even year performances) and the most reliable pitchers on your roster are 39 year old Curt Schilling and Jonathan Papelbon before his arm fell off that September, you’re probably not making it to the postseason no matter how many home runs Big Papi hits (for what it’s worth, he hit 54 dingers, a Red Sox single season record). This season was, to use a term I hate, a bridge year, as Epstein was in the process of re-branding the team in a new, more metric friendly image. Without the arms to supplement an up and down offense (they had the worst team ERA of the last 15 year stretch), the Sox floundered down the stretch and missed the playoffs. When the enduring image of a baseball season is shuttling a backup catcher through the city via police escort so he can get to the game on time because he’s apparently the only person on planet earth who can catch your fifth starter’s knuckleball, things probably didn’t go all that well.

To be fair to the 2001 team, they still managed to win 82 games despite missing two of their three best players for much of the season. While the 2000 didn’t have Manny being Manny, they were still only able to muster three more wins despite Pedro and Nomar having transcendent seasons. Pedro was electric once again, posting a 1.74 ERA (!) and Nomar hit .372, the highest number by a right-handed hitter in the postwar era. Unfortunately for the Sox, their second best offensive player was Carl Everett, and this was the season where everyone collectively realized that Wilton Veras wasn’t going to be any good. The lack of pop in the lineup showed, as the team managed a measly isolated power of .156 (better only than the 2014 and 2012 teams). The rotation relied on stalwarts such as Jeff Fassero, Rolando Arrojo, and Ramon Martinez, who served as the Fredo to Pedro’s Michael. Fun fact: this was also John “Way Back” Wasdin’s last go around in a Red Sox uniform, as he was traded to Colorado midseason.

How they finished: 89-73, 3rd in the AL East, missed postseason
Team MVP: Adrian Beltre
Team LVP: The Disabled List, again
AKA: “The Team Where Everyone Got Hurt at the End”

Adrian Beltre is probably the lasting image from this season, as the third baseman spent most of his only season in Boston putting dent after dent in the Green Monster. Beltre instantly became a fan favorite, even if he attempted to murder Victor Martinez a half dozen times. The problem with this team stemmed from a serious wave of injuries that derailed an otherwise talented club. Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia missed a combined 147 games, and though Ortiz ended up with 32 home runs he struggled mightily out of the gate. The team was middle of the pack offensively, and while Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz shined in the rotation and John Lackey ate up 215 innings, the rest of the rotation was mediocre and Papelbon posted his worst season in a Red Sox uniform. Ultimately, injuries to two franchise cornerstones submarined the team’s late season push, though they stick in my mind for lasting longer in the playoff race than anyone expected given the rash of injuries.

Tier 3: 90 in the Regular Season, 0 in the Postseason

How they finished: 95-67, 2nd in the AL East, swept in ALDS by CHW
Team MVP: David Ortiz
Team LVP: Wade Miller
AKA: “The Season After”

Here’s the part of the rankings where things start to get interesting, mostly because the teams go from “wildly mediocre” to “pretty good”. The 2005 team was Boston’s first title defense in 86 years, and while on the whole they performed pretty effectively by tying the Yankees for first in the division but having to be shuffled to the Wild Card spot due to head to head record, it was clear that they were a step below the quality of their predecessors. Ortiz and Ramirez were monsters yet again in the middle of the lineup, each posting an OPS+ of over 150. Offensively, this was the final season of a three year run from 2003-2005 that saw the Red Sox lead the majors in OPS and wRC+. This season the Red Sox managed to place second in the MLB by the latter metric, trailing only the Yankees. It was fortunate that the offense was so effective, because the pitching staff was a total mess. The only player to make multiple starts and have an ERA under 4.15 was Jonathan Papelbon, who made 3 starts and 14 bullpen appearances with an ERA of 2.65. With Schilling attempting to return from ankle surgery (and doing so with limited effectiveness), the Red Sox were forced to turn to David Wells’ neck fat and Tim Wakefield to carry the rotation. Newly signed Matt Clement got off to a hot start but then was hit in the face by a line drive right before the All-Star break and his season and career dropped off of a cliff. Keith Foulke, an October hero in his own right from the previous year’s championship run, was abysmal and lost his closer role to reliable Mike Timlin within a couple of months. Mark Bellhorn, keeping in line with players suffering from some sort of World Series hangover, was useless. He struck out 109 times in 335 PA before being relieved in favor of a Tony Graffinino/Alex Cora platoon. When the team finally did make it to the playoffs, they were handled easily by the White Sox, with the lasting memory being a Buckner-like moment in Game 2 involving a slow roller and Graffanino’s legs. At the end of the day, this was more or less a less impressive version of the 2003 team.

How they finished: 95-67, 2nd in the AL East, swept in ALDS by LAA
Team MVP: Kevin Youkilis
Team LVPs: Brad Penny and Daisuke Matsuzaka
AKA: “That Time We Bet the Season on John Smoltz’s Corpse and Rocco Baldelli and Thought it Would Work Out”

The alternate title for this team says it all. The 2009 Sox, while talented, had a few gaping holes at key spots and while they did make the playoffs, they ultimately sunk to a team they had owned in the postseason up to that point. Epstein made a big splash in the middle of the season by trading since returned pitcher Justin Masterson and a couple other prospects for then Indians C/1B Victor Martinez. The move was much needed with Jason Varitek in his age 37 season and David Ortiz struggling through his worst season as a member of the team. Martinez raked once joining the Sox, putting up a .336/.405/507 line in 56 games. Jacoby Ellsbury also burst onto the scene as a full time player, hitting .301 and swiping 70 bags. Again, this was a solid team up and down the roster, however a revolving door at shortstop was part of the reason why the Sox finished the season 26th in the MLB with -42 Defensive Runs Saved. And other than solid seasons from Beckett and Lester, the rotation was a mess thanks to a washed up John Smoltz and a 25 lbs. overweight Brad Penny. The final result? A sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States.

How they finished: 93-69, 2nd in the AL East, missed postseason
Team MVP: Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez
Team LVP: Tony Clark
AKA: “The Team That Was Better Than You Remember”

This is the part where I’ll be expecting to catch some flack in the rankings. Right now you’re probably saying “Greg you colossal idiot, how can you rank a team that didn’t make the playoffs ahead of a couple of teams that did?” You might have a point, but go do the research. The 2002 Red Sox were probably better than you remember. According to Baseball Reference, the 2002 team had a Pythagorean W-L of 100-62. The only team on this list with a better Pythagorean W-L? The 2007 Red Sox. On one hand, that means the Sox were more than a little bit unlucky in ’02, underperforming by 7 wins. On the other hand, the Sox had expected Tony Clark to play well that season, so maybe they dug their own grave in a few ways. What this team did better than any other Red Sox team in the 21st century is pitch. Their 3.75 team ERA was third in the AL that year (they were also third in the MLB in FIP) and is the best mark of any team on this list. While wins may be an irrelevant stat nowadays, that doesn’t change the fact that the Red Sox had two 20 game winners on the roster, as newly converted starter Derek Lowe won 21 games and Pedro won 20. Even Tim Wakefield had a career year, posting a 2.81 ERA while shuttling back and forth between the bullpen and the rotation. This was the final year of the Dan Duquette era and the first year of the Henry/Werner/Lucchino ownership group, and spurred on a stretch where the Red Sox won 90-plus games 7 out of 8 years. They may not have made the playoffs, but they were certainly good enough to be in the conversation, and good enough to be put ahead of the 2005 and 2009 teams.

How they finished: 90-72, 3rd in the AL East, missed postseason
Team MVP: Jacoby Ellsbury
Team LVP: Popeyes
AKA: “Chicken and Beer”

This is probably the most divisive team of this century. You could argue they should be anywhere between 6th and 10th on this list, and make a pretty good case. I wrote about that season on my old blog back in September of 2011 (Warning: only click on that link if you want to see angsty teen ramblings about a bunch of millionaires not winning a game…actually you probably shouldn’t click on it at all if you know what’s good for you) and it currently stands, given the expectations surrounding the team, the second most disappointing season of any team I have ever supported. At the same time, this is possibly the second or third most talented team the Red Sox have had in the 21st century. This team had not one but THREE legitimate MVP candidates. Jacoby Ellsbury inexplicably hit 32 HR, swiped 39 bags, and put up an insane .321/.376/.552 line. Had the Red Sox made the playoffs, he likely would have been named the AL MVP. Dustin Pedroia hit 21 homers and had a career year, outperforming his 2008 campaign where he won MVP. Adrian Gonzalez slowed as the season wore on, but still managed to post a .338/.410/.548 line. Even David Ortiz was impressive, finishing second on the team to Gonzo with a 154 OPS+. Beckett had a sub-3 ERA, and between April 16 and August 1st the team went 81-42, a 107 win pace. The only problem is that the Red Sox didn’t show up for the first two weeks of the season, getting off to a 2-10 start, and went 7-20 over the final month of the season. On August 31st, the Sox stood at 83-52, still on pace for 100 wins. Their collapse was blamed on a variety of off field issues, but really the issue was that the Red Sox were relying on guys like Kyle Weiland, Andrew Miller, John Lackey who was working with an elbow in need of Tommy John surgery, and a 44 year old Tim Wakefield to carry them to the playoffs. When the rotation collapsed, the bullpen followed suit, and the result was one of the worst stretch runs in major league history. But when this team was on its game from mid-April to August? They killed everybody. The only 21st century Red Sox team with a higher wRC+? 2003’s Murderers Row. The only 21st century Red Sox team with a higher offensive WAR? 2013’s Swiss Army knife. This was a team that dominated for the majority of the season. If it wasn’t for a couple of key injuries to important arms, this team could have found itself at the top of the list. The result may not have gone perfectly, but when I think about pure talent, 2011 is right at the top of the list.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2

]]>https://luysii.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/what-a-difference-a-change-of-administration-makes/
Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:38:58 +0000luysiihttps://luysii.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/what-a-difference-a-change-of-administration-makes/This is not a scientific post. Having a son who majored in journalism educated me to the various and sundry ways news is slanted. Here in Massachusetts, the administration changed from 8 years of Democratic governance to Republican. Liberals shouldn’t fret as the legislature remains 90% Democratic.

For the past 8 years the local press has been carrying water for increased spending and taxes. We have been regaled with headlines decrying “Draconian cuts” and budget gaps. Such was the case with the outgoing administration, where stories began appearing last December about budget gaps on the order of 700 million. I wrote the reporter asking what this represented in terms of the total budget and never got anything back, ditto for the response from one of the few Republican senators still standing. Throughout the decade I could never get a straight answer as to the actual amount of the budget and the year to year changes in same.

“tax revenues are coming in on target, with an approximately 4.5 percent increase over last year. However, state spending is on target to increase by 7.3 percent“. It will be amusing to see if ‘Draconian cut” stories appear as they have in the past. Mr. Micawber always had a budget gap and so do we.

This time a year ago, I wrote about the state of the Chicago Cubs, America’s lovable losers, who appeared poised to be doing more of the same. Cubs team president, Theo Epstein, and general manager Jed Hoyer, made names for themselves in the game of baseball as general manager and assistant manager, respectively, for the Boston Red Sox when they won the World Series in 2004 and 2007, the first titles for Boston’s American League ball club since the Wilson Administration. It’s been a slower process building Chicago’s National League club into a winner, and they continued to do a lot of losing in 2014, but they seem to be heading in a better direction, or they have at least picked a direction, which could not be said a year ago.

I pointed out that they had an easier job turning the Red Sox into winner than they have with the Cubs, because they inherited from (current Baltimore Orioles GM) Dan Duquette a pretty good roster that included Boston mainstays like Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe, Trot Nixon, Tim Wakefield, and Nomar Garciaparra, and I pointed out that the roster already included two guys named Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez. Building a championship team is never easy, and there is a lot of luck involved when it comes to actually playing out the games, but it’s a lot easier to get to October with a chance at a title when you already have the best right handed pitcher and the best right handed hitter in the American League (if not all of baseball). While Theo did make his share of moves to put the Red Sox over the top, and he bolstered the farm system through the draft, paving the way for success beyond 2004, Dan Duquette deserved a World Series ring for 2004 as much as anyone employed by the team when they won it.

While I think Theo Epstein is a very smart baseball executive, and he has as good a chance as anyone in the last century to lead the Cubs to a World Series title, his tenure at the top of the Red Sox baseball operations department is overrated for more than just 2004. During the 2005-06 offseason, Epstein resigned as general manager of the Red Sox in a power struggle with team president Larry Lucchino that defined his tenure in Boston as much as the two championships did. He signed back on with the Sox before the start of the 2006 season, but in the interim, the Red Sox made a bold move that Epstein would not have made, and set the stage for the 2007 World Series run. The Red Sox, led by Epstein’s assistant GMs Jed Hoyer (currently serving under Epstein as GM of the Cubs) and Ben Cherington (currently serving as GM of the Red Sox) serving as co-interim GMs, traded highly touted shortstop prospect Hanley Ramirez along with Jesus Delgado, Harvey Garcia, and Anibal Sanchez to the Florida Marlins for Mike Lowell, Josh Beckett, and Guillermo Mota. Epstein was hesitant to trade Hanley, as the Red Sox have had a bit of a revolving door at the shortstop position, not unlike the Defense Against the Dark Arts professorship at Hogwarts, ever since they traded Nomar in the middle of the season in 2004. Hanley Ramirez became an All-Star, but the Red Sox would not have won the 2007 World Series without Beckett and Lowell.

Epstein left the Red Sox for good after the 2011 season and hired Hoyer (who had left the Red Sox for the San Diego Padres a couple of years earlier) as his general manager shortly thereafter. Since then, they have made trades to cu salary and lose as much as possible to improve draft position. The free agents they have signed have been used as trade bait for contending teams like the Oakland Athletics with deep farm systems. This offseason, however, they appear trying to win for a change. When Joe Maddon opted out of his contract as manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, the Cubs pounced on the chance to hire their third manager in four years. Maddon was annoying to Red Sox fans within the division because of his arrogant personality leading the little ball club that could down in Florida. Annoying and arrogant as he may be, they guy is a winner. By hiring Maddon, the Cubs are showing that they look to take advantage of the chances they get and the breaks they may catch, as opposed to just sitting back and hoping their prospects become big ballplayers.

Building through the draft is great when your prospects are working out. When Epstein was in Boston, they went on a run where almost all of there homegrown talent was panning out. Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz, Manny Delcarmen, and Jacoby Ellsbury all turned into impact players for the Sox, but when you go cold, you go cold. The last of those guys made it up to the big league team in the midst of the 2007 title run, and Kevin Youkilis is now 35 and retired from playing. Lars Anderson, Ryan Westmoreland, and Ryan Kalish never became who the Red Sox and their fans hoped they would become. Prospects are nice, but established Major League players are better to bank on. Good teams find a way to strike a balance between building through the farm system, and filling needs through free agency. It is hard, if not impossible, to sustain success doing just one or the other.

The Cubs have decent assemblage of talent that includes former Red Sox prospect Anthony Rizzo (who was traded to San Diego in the Adrian Gonzalez Trade), starting pitcher Jake Arrieta, who nearly threw a perfect game at Fenway Park last summer, and this week, they signed my favorite pitcher not named Pedro Martinez. Last season, one of the highlights for the Cubs was going into Fenway and sweeping the then-defending World Series champion Red Sox. It must have felt good for Theo Epstein, now that he finally has a chance to call the shots as team president, and it showed how small the margins between the best teams and the worst teams are in baseball, as the Red Sox proceeded on their way to their second last place finish in three years, making a miserable bookend for the magical season that was 2013.

The last time the Cubs won the World Series, Ottoman was the name of an empire, and not just the thing Dick Van Dyke trips over (and I realize that’s a half century old television reference itself), but they just might have the foundation in place for it to happen this century, or even this decade. Or maybe 2015 is the year, after all.

]]>https://greatlakesloons.mlblogs.com/2014/11/14/baseball-promotions-the-good-the-bad-the-absurd/
Fri, 14 Nov 2014 19:41:01 +0000Great Lakes Loonshttps://greatlakesloons.mlblogs.com/2014/11/14/baseball-promotions-the-good-the-bad-the-absurd/If promotions can be considered the lifeblood of minor league baseball, then you can assume that the ones that go wrong can be hazardous to a team’s health.In terms of the Cleveland Indians Ten Cent Beer Night in 1974, that was literally true. There may be no more volatile of a mix than inebriated fans jumping onto the field and engaging with players in a good old fashioned bar fight – minus the bar.

Here at Dow Diamond, promotions are always a hot topic, especially with our 2015 promo lineup being hammered into shape by Chris Mundhenk, Vice President of Marketing and Entertainment, and Amber Ferris, Promotions Manager. It’s hard to get any work done with all the brainstormin’ going on.
We can’t reveal our 2015 promotions schedule just yet, but stay tuned. As the ballpark settles into its yearly hibernation, it’s still not a stretch to imagine a future filled once again with baseball, promotions, and more baseball and promotions. It’s out there, somewhere beyond the Polar Vortex.

But that doesn’t stop us from talking about promos of the past, especially the ill-fated ones that live on as both a means to show how the right conditions – like a perfect storm – collide to create an epic system failure, and also as a source of continual belly laughs. No, it’s really not funny that fans stormed the field after downing three too many dime beers, but some of the tales (and grainy video) of that evening … well, enough said.

So here’s a look back at some of wackiest and misguided sports promotions in history, starting with the aforementioned night in Cleveland:

Ten Cent Beer Night

First, some background: 1) The Indians weren’t much of a draw in 1974, or for more than a decade, for that matter; 2) The week before, the Indians and Rangers had brawled in Texas; 3) The Rangers’ manager was Billy Martin, whose combative, combustible nature was legendary.

So, when a Cleveland reporter asked Martin, after the brawl in Texas, whether he should be worried about the reaction of Indians fans in Cleveland the following week, Martin replied thusly: “Naw, they won’t have enough fans there to worry about.”

Until the Indians offered up 12 oz. cups of beer for a dime, that is.

While Municipal Stadium didn’t sell out, the announced attendance of 25,134 was twice the number expected. Many patrons predictably loaded up on cheap beer, and the train soon went off the track. Fans interrupted the game by running onto the field, including a father and son who mooned the crowd (oh, how lifelong memories are made). Some concessions workers, over-run by thirsty fans, simply abandoned their stations.

With the game tied 5-5 in the ninth inning, an Indians fan hopped onto the field and tried to steal Texas outfielder Jeff Burroughs’ cap. Martin, thinking Burroughs had been attacked, led his team on the field, some wielding bats. The Cleveland Police Department was finally called in to restore order, but the game was forfeited to the Rangers.

The understatement came in the aftermath. Said American League president Lee MacPhail: “There was no question that beer played a part in the riot.”

Indeed.

Disco Demolition Night

Ah, there’s nothing quite like filling a crate with disco records and blowing it up on the field. At least the Chicago White Sox thought so on July 12, 1979, when they partnered with a local DJ for Disco Demolition Night.

Attendees were allowed into Comiskey Park for 98 cents if they brought a disco record to be tossed into the crate between games of a twi-night doubleheader between the ChiSox and Detroit Tigers. Like the Indians with Ten Cent Beer Night, the White Sox hoped for a modest crowd; instead more than 50,000 fans jammed the park.

While the crate would be filled with records, many remained in possession of fans – who hurled them Frisbee-style onto the playing field. White Sox owner Bill Veeck, who’d been hospitalized to undergo tests, checked himself out because of concern that the promotion might turn into a disaster.

Boy, was he right.

D.J., and anti-disco campaigner, Steve Dahl set off the explosives, which left a large hole in the outfield grass, and scattered thousands of shards of broken vinyl everywhere. An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 fans stormed the field, ultimately forcing the Sox to forfeit the nightcap.

Like promotions manager Mike Veeck – Bill’s son – who said of fans that evening, ‘This is the Woodstock they never had,’ Tigers manager Sparky Anderson sensed that participants were fueled by more than a dislike of disco music.

“Beer and baseball go together, they have for years,” Anderson said. “But I think those kids were doing things other than beer.”

Derek Lowe Poster Night

Lowe was the Boston Red Sox closer in 2001 and featured on a poster produced by the Massachusetts Teachers Association promoting literacy for their Red Sox Reading Game.

That spring, the MTA handed out 10,000 of the posters at a Red Sox game. Lowe, who was off to a shaky start that season, entered the game with a two-run lead against the Royals and gave up four. Frustrated fans responded by tossing posters on the field, forcing a game delay of 15 minutes.

Clearly it wasn’t a night for Lowe or literacy.

Jeffrey Hammonds Bobblehead Night

In 2001, free agent Jeffrey Hammonds signed the biggest contract in Milwaukee Brewers history. Beset by injuries and on-field struggles, Hammonds then limped through two forgettable seasons with the Brewers.

There was one small problem, however: Hammonds had been cut from the team a couple of days before.

And Some Other ‘Fun’ Ones

– The Vero Beach Devil Rays tried to liven things up with their 2008 Anti-Doping Night, in which the first 200 fans received free urine sample cups. A rumored appearance by Alex Rodriguez never materialized, however.

– Providing further proof that giving fans things they can throw is always a high-risk, low-reward proposition, the Minnesota Twins tried a “Minnesota Road Map Night.”

As it turned out, many fans made travel plans right there and launched their maps – folded into paper airplanes – onto the playing field below.

– Sometimes wiser heads prevail. That was the case in the West Virginia Power’s promotion, “Salute To Indoor Plumbing Night.”

The Power planned to shut down all bathrooms in the stadium and force fans to use port-o-pottys. Fortunately, it never went down, however, because it presented a massive health code violation.

– The Reading (Pa.) Phillies certainly salute and appreciate indoor plumbing on Gluttony Night, a gorge fest in which fans can consume all the cheeseburgers, pizza, soda, funnel cakes, ice cream, French fries, hot dogs and pizza from 5 p.m. through the 7th inning for only $10.

– The Hagerstown Suns have never been shy when it comes to thinking outside the box in terms of promotions, but their thinking was decidedly inside the box for their 2003 Pre-Planned Funeral Night.

For that promotion, one “lucky” fan received a funeral package for $6,500.

Guess it never hurts to plan ahead.

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Sat, 01 Nov 2014 15:00:14 +0000Matt Ingersollhttps://mattgaryingersoll.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/the-top-5-most-underrated-red-sox-players-of-the-2000s/All this talk of Red Sox history and past championships has compelled me to give credit when credit is due to the participants the average fan may have forgotten about by now. Sure, players like Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and even David Ortiz have definitely earned their place in Red Sox lore, but we must not forget all others who are just as worthy. I’ve compiled a short list of players whom I feel had played their butts off while they were wearing a Red Sox uniform during this new and exciting championship-winning era that is the 21st century. It wasn’t easy to narrow it down to five, mind you, which is why I also have a short “honorable mention” list that follows. This list is really just based off of what I have observed, both as a young fan and as an aspiring sports journalist. These are all former players that I think back today and realize, “Wow, I feel like no one has really talked about or remembered them in a while.” So, here you ago! First my top 5: in order of least to most underrated.

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5) Trot Nixon (RF)

Nixon played right field for us from 1996 through 2006 and man, did he play that right field. I think of Trot and remember all of these amazing sliding and diving catches he would make when it mattered most, saving runs and in some cases even games (most notably, in Game 5 of the 2004 American League Championship Series, in which he saved two additional Yankee runs from scoring with a near-shoestring catch in the sixth inning with the bases loaded). And then, his two-run double in Game 4 of the 2004 World Series proved to be one of the differences in the game that would bring the Red Sox to their first championship in 86 years.

Trot Nixon bats in a 2006 game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Photo (cc) by Ferguson and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

4) Orlando Cabrera (SS)

This guy was only in Boston for three months in ’04, but what an impression he made! (Well, in my opinion, at least.) For those who may not remember, Orlando Cabrera was one of the players we got in exchange for trading away former star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra; Nomar was dealt to the Chicago Cubs while Cabrera came over from the Montreal Expos. On Aug. 1, 2004, Cabrera hit a home run in his first at-bat with the Red Sox. He would also quickly become a fan favorite, providing stability on the playing field as a shortstop. I was only 12 years old at the time, but I still remember the hype Cabrera brought with him to Boston when he first arrived. I also always thought he was a decent hitter out of the number 2 batting hole. Sadly, he would not return after the 2004 season.

Orlando Cabrera batting in 2007 as a member of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the team he joined after spending just three months with the Boston Red Sox in 2004. Photo (cc) by socaltimes and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

3) Mike Lowell (3B)

While not being a part of the Red Sox’ historic 2004 season, Mike Lowell was still a very respectable driving force both at third base and in the middle of the batting order from 2006 to 2010. Lowell has the unique feat of holding three World Series rings with three different teams (1998 with the New York Yankees, 2003 with the Florida Marlins and 2007 with the Red Sox). He was named the World Series MVP for 2007, putting up a .400 batting average, four runs batted in and six runs scored. Lowell was supposed to be traded to the Texas Rangers at the end of the 2009 season, but the deal was called off when it was found that he needed thumb surgery. Frankly, I’m kind of glad that happened in retrospect because it allowed Lowell to finish up his career with Boston. He would retire in 2010.

Mike Lowell with the Boston Red Sox in 2008. Photo (cc) by Keith Allison and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

2) Doug Mirabelli (C)

Jason Varitek has always been my favorite Red Sox catcher, but Doug Mirabelli absolutely cannot be forgotten. The team of Varitek as the everyday catcher and Mirabelli as the backup catcher was a perfect one that remained effective for years. And Mirabelli was a beast behind the plate catching Tim Wakefield’s knuckle-balls. Jason Varitek is a great catcher, but he just couldn’t handle Wakefield like Mirabelli could (just look back again at Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS: three passed balls alone in the 13th inning, when everything is on the line!). I still think Mirabelli should have been out there during that crucial moment, but I digress. I was really glad that Mirabelli came back in 2006 after leaving for a season to play for the San Diego Padres, because we simply needed him to catch Wakefield. He was also a relatively decent hitter, for the few at-bats he was able to amass. When Mirabelli got hot, he was on fire. He actually holds an MLB record: six or more home runs in six consecutive seasons of less than 200 at-bats (2001 to 2006); how about that!

Doug Mirabelli in a 2007 World Series game. 2007 would be his final season with the Boston Red Sox and of his career. Photo (cc) by Eric Kilby and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Bill Mueller in a 2005 game, his final season with the Boston Red Sox. Photo (cc) by UCinternational and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

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So there you have it! Who would have known that all of these players would hold unique Major League Baseball records of their own! My honorable mention list consisted of starting pitcher Derek Lowe (the first pitcher to ever win all three clinching postseason games, which he did in ’04), closer Keith Foulke, set-up man Mike Timlin and third baseman/first baseman Kevin Youkilis. Let me know what you think, if you agree or disagree with my list, or if you feel like I have forgotten anybody who has played for the Red Sox from the year 2000 through this season. It’s certainly worth a debate!

(This is the crucial part) The NIH is engaged in basic research. We are talking very, very basic research. Like, identifying the genes and sequences and making them available to other researchers, or studying how the virus works and propagates, or figuring out which enzymes chop up the viral proteins, or how the viral proteins are exposed to the rest of the body. That’s the kind of research the NIH does. And sometimes, the research is so preliminary that there are mistakes that get published that industrial labs have to figure out when they try to replicate the results in the lab. Not a criticism. It happens. You only have so much money to do the research and sometimes, it’s not enough to double check your results. I get it. But it does make it harder for your private industry partners to figure out what’s going on and sometimes means that projects need to take detours to unpack mechanisms and rerun assays and such. In other words, REAL RESEARCH. That’s just the way science works, much to the finance industry’s chagrin.

So, the NIH tried to get a private industry partner to help finish the research on the vaccine and develop it.

But during the same decade, private industry was going through a chaotic destructive process brought on by the “patent cliff”. That is, the blockbuster drugs that fueled industry research suddenly went off patent. In response, the shareholders who were not about to take a haircut just so some lab rats could continue to do research for them, decided to take the money and run. That precipitated Pharmageddon, where I and my colleagues got tossed out of corporate labs by the hundreds of thousands.

The NIH couldn’t find a private industry partner until the last couple of years when Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) decided it would take a risk and start working on one.

In the meantime, in the last couple of years, the Republicans have lost their freaking minds over the budget and would rather let every government institution rot in hell before they would approve any funding. This is about the same time we wrote a blank check to AIG, and other lords of the finance industry (see Neil Barofsky’s book). Then the Democrats came up with this great idea of a sequester, you know, to call the Republicans bluff. And the raving mob that calls itself the Republican party took the deal and slashed NIH funding by 20%. The Democratic leadership that came up with the boneheaded, backfiring sequester idea should be kept away from sharp objects for their own safety.

So, to recap: NIH needed a vaccine but couldn’t find a private partner for nearly a decade. Private industry contracted at a time when additional research and development is crucial. Regular NIH funding is not sufficient for it to develop a vaccine on its own.

This would probably be a good time to insert some Paul Krugmanesque graph that shows the equilibrium between private and public investment in scientific research. This one should show that when private industry stopped funding research, the corresponding expected increase in public spending was notably absent.

Derek has a libertarian streak and works for one of the last small molecule drug discovery companies in Cambridge. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it does skew his perspective just a tad. Not only that but Derek is operating in the old world order when we tested every therapeutic treatment to death. That’s clearly not happening with the ebola treatments. Those suckers have been fast tracked like nobody’s business. We are treating ZMapp like it’s a cure for ebola when it’s nothing of the sort. It’s just that it’s the only thing we’ve got. ZMapp is so early in development that back in the old days of real drug discovery, it might have been killed in a project portfolio review before it ever made it to development. And the vaccines? Well, normally, they’d go through many stages of development and testing for safety, efficacy, and side effects with an expanding number of trial recipients at each stage before it was approved by the FDA. Forget that. In this epidemic in West Africa, with number of exposures increasing exponentially, no one has time for these niceties (though I can just see some lefties screaming about how we killed West Africans with an untested vaccine that triggered a cytokine storm or autoimmune disease. Wait for it. You know it’s going to happen. There will probably be a movie about it featuring some ruggedly handsome Liam Neesom type and a earnestly beautiful lady scientist detective out to uncover the awful truth of corporate exploitation of poor third world citizens.).

The real world is not so simple but there definitely is money at the bottom of this mess.

I’ve worked on both sides of the problems in both industry and in academia, if only briefly. But I got a good look at what it’s like to do research on NIH grant money and it’s not pretty. Most of a principal investigator’s time is spent preparing grant applications. It’s very bureaucratic and, I suspect, very political. If there isn’t a retrospective analysis on the amount of grant money that goes to the Ivies that leave the rest of the academic labs starving for funds, there really should be. Not every breakthrough has to happen at Harvard. The polio vaccine, for example, was developed in Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah, how many of you knew that Jonas Salk worked for the University of Pittsburgh? True story.

And yet, it was about a year ago that I got a call in my office at Pitt from a researcher in the immunology group who had just lost her job because of the sequester. It was last year at about this time that we had to cut back sharply on ordering chemicals and lab supplies for my lab because grants were on hold, also due to the sequester. Even today, I see positions at Pitt for the kind of work that I used to do but the hours are part time. Really?? You expect scientists to do protein production, extraction and crystallization experiments on a part time basis? That’s the craziest thing I have ever seen. You can’t just interrupt an experiment half way through the week because you’ve run out of hours. That makes me think that the people posting the positions aren’t serious about how many hours they expect the researcher to be available. It’s deceptive and weird and unrealistic. But that’s life on soft money. Here today, gone the next. Yet the cells still need to be fed, lysed, protein collected, spun, purified, etc, etc, etc.

Friends, Americans, countrypersons, this is no way to run a research infrastructure. Ok, sure, it’s the way to run a research infrastructure if you don’t want to do it like Americans used to do it. If you are content to run a research infrastructure like Bolivians do it, fine, do it this way. But don’t complain later that nothing of significance happened on the science front from 2008 onward. Don’t complain that the NIH is not telling the truth about funding. It can’t be all things to all people without a steady funding mechanism that isn’t going to be subject to violent shocks brought on by crazy people who get elected to Congress.

Here’s the bottom line. If liberals expect the NIH to do all of the things that they *think* it already does, it needs more funding. It needs waaaaaaaay more funding than it already has. It needs as much funding as private industry used to pump into its own research coffers but no longer does. It needs billions and billions more. It has to become what private industry used to be but no longer wants to be.

And if Republicans are committed to free enterprise at all costs, it’s going to have to get tough with private industry drug discovery and force it to take on research that it sees as unprofitable. It needs to have a serious talk with the bonus class and shareholders about greed at the expense of public health. Isn’t that what the GOP is all about? Morality?

That’s just the honest truth. The NIH is not private industry. If we want the NIH to replace private industry, which has abandoned certain, critical research areas because it can’t make the kind of profits that shareholders demand nowadays, we need to put more money into the NIH and fund researchers properly and seriously. That is the point that Frances Collins has been trying to make.

Liberals have a complete misunderstanding of what the NIH does or is capable of doing. Libertarians have an inflated view of what private industry can do, sometimes because they are living in one of the last holdouts of productive private industry drug discovery (that could end at any time, so don’t get too comfy, Derek). But once you have lived in both worlds, you can see what a shambles the whole system is. It’s unsettling and alarming.

After their heartbreaking ALCS loss to the New York Yankees off the bat of Aaron Boone in 2003, the Red Sox were once again pitted up against their biggest rival with a trip to the World Series on the line in 2004. Things were supposed to be much different, with Boston taking 11 of the 19 regular season meetings and Curt Schilling now with Pedro Martinez in the Red Sox rotation. But the Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 series lead despite close games in Games 1 and 2, followed by a 19-8 trouncing in Game 3 at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox were all but done, facing their final three outs of the series until Dave Roberts swiped second base in the ninth inning of Game 4. He later came around to score the game-tying run on a Bill Mueller single, and a David Ortiz two-run homer in the bottom of the 12th gave Boston the win — and new life in the series. The Red Sox fought back to win three straight to even the series up at 3-3, bringing us to October 20, 2004.

One game for the AL pennant and a trip to the Fall Classic. The Red Sox wasted no time in deciding that one, bursting out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and a 6-0 lead by the second. They won the game 10-3 to advance to the World Series, where they swept the St. Louis Cardinals to end their 86-year title drought. Boston’s feat against New York remains the only comeback from a 3-0 series deficit in MLB history.

Let’s relive some of the classic moments from 10 years ago with 10 unforgettable moments from Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS:

1. Ortiz’s Early Homer

David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez celebrate after Ortiz’s first inning homer against the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The Red Sox jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to a two-run blast by David Ortiz off New York starter Kevin Brown in the first inning. Ortiz was named the MVP of the series, batting .387 with three homers and 11 RBI.

2. Damon’s Grand Slam

Johnny Damon watches his second inning grand slam fly into the right field seats in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Damon had been just 3-for-29 over the first six games of the series, but put that all behind him with one swing of the bat in Game 7. With one out and the bases loaded with Red Sox in the top of the second, Damon took the first pitch from Javier Vasquez and deposited a grand slam into the right field seats to give the Boston a 6-0 lead. And he wasn’t done yet.

3. Another Blast From Damon

Johnny Damon rounds the bases after clubbing a two-run homer in the fourth inning of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

After the Yankees scored their first run in the bottom of the third to make it 6-1 Boston, Damon added even more insurance with a two-run homer in the fourth inning. He finished the game 3-for-6 with the two homers, six RBI and two runs scored.

4. Lowe Quiets New York

Derek Lowe celebrates after striking out Gary Sheffield to end the sixth inning in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Derek Lowe got the start for the Red Sox, and held the Yankees to just one run over six innings while striking out three. Lowe finished his evening by striking out Gary Sheffield to end the sixth, the 11th straight batter he retired.

5. Pedro In Relief

Pedro Martinez comes on in relief for the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Just a year after the Grady Little debacle, Terry Francona actually called upon Pedro Martinez to come out in relief for Boston in Game 7. The Yankees tagged him for a pair of runs, prompting “Who’s Your Daddy” chants from Yankees fans, but Pedro struck out John Olerud and got Miguel Cairo to pop out to end the threat.

6. Let The Celebration Begin!

Alan Embree and Jason Varitek celebrate the final out of Boston’s 2004 ALCS comeback against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Alan Embree got the final out of the 10-3 Red Sox victory, prompting quite the celebration in the Bronx.

7. Pig Pile

The Boston Red Sox celebrate after defeating the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, completing a comeback from a 3-0 series deficit. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

8. The Hero Of Game 7

Johnny Damon celebrates after defeating the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Rock on, Johnny. Rock on.

9. Big Hugs

Pokey Reese and Orlando Cabrera celebrate after winnig Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

When the Red Sox traded for Orlando Cabrera at the deadline, he brought an array of celebratory hand shakes with him. When the Red Sox won Game 7, he and Pokey Reese decided a hand shake wasn’t enough.

But that was probably just the Jack Daniels at work: [worldnow id=10731463 width=385 height=288 type=video]

BONUS: WE’RE NUMBER ONE!!!!

Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez amd Kevan Millar of the Boston Red Sox celebrate after defeating the New York Yankees 10-3 in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

After beating the Yankees, Boston swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. The Red Sox have gone on to win three World Series titles in 10 years, but it all began with their dramatic and incredible comeback against their foes in New York.

Frank Wren is out as the Braves general manager, not because he failed to make some shrewd trades or sign some good players or even oversaw a minor league system that failed to produce talent.

Wren is out because he simply wasn’t good enough.

In his seven seasons, the Braves failed to reach the postseason four times and failed to win a playoff round even once (losing seven of their nine postseason games). Even with the difficulties that go with inheriting a bloated and aging roster that required significant rebuilding in the winter of 2007, that’s not an acceptable standard.

Wren is gone but Fredi Gonzalez will remain as manager, at least for now. (AJC photo)

The Braves’ job is not an easy one. There are limits on the annual budget, which seemingly isn’t the case in Los Angeles, New York or Boston. But that doesn’t mean a franchise can’t succeed, it just means it can’t afford to make expensive mistakes.

Wren did just that. B.J. Upton has been a disaster and still has three years left on a $75 million contract. Dan Uggla gave the team a good year or so but this season they decided to pay him a year and a half to go away. Kenshin Kawakami was dreadful for two years and also paid to leave with a year left on his contract. Derek Lowe: strong at times, particularly down the stretch in 2010, but well overpaid for his contributions and the market value at the time of free agency. He also was dismissed with time and money left.

“You can make a mistake,” Braves CEO Terry McGuirk told me last month. “You just can’t make a lot of mistakes. Small-market teams can make very few mistakes. The big guys like the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Angels, the Yankees, they can afford to make big mistakes. We don’t have that luxury. Uggla was one of my favorite guys on the team. It just killed me that whatever happened, but it just didn’t work anymore. We took that hit.”

Even if you’re on the “Fire Fredi Gonzalez” bandwagon, well, it was Wren who hired him.

In the end, Wren proved to be a very good assistant general manager but not a very good GM. He excelled at the mid-level and low-level decisions but failed at the big ones. The Braves had poor chemistry and the lineup was heavy on all-or-nothing hitters but short on high-percentage hitters.

There are number of issues that must be dealt with now. It made no sense to allow Wren to make those decisions. Here’s a few:

• Manager Fredi Gonzalez: There is an on-going debate as to how much blame he should get for the last four years. My view: The problems on this team go far deeper than the manager but that doesn’t absolve Gonzalez of responsibility. I believe the new general manager should make that call. I also think it’s possible Gonzalez will be kept and judged for one season by the new general manager.

• Personnel: Something has to be done with B.J. Upton. There also could be potential trades with some combination of Evan Gattis (who’s catching spot likely will be taken by Christian Bethancourt), and Justin Upton and Jason Heyward (who will be entering the final year of their respective contracts).

• Coaching: Pitching coach Roger McDowell is the only coach who has earned his keep this season. It would be surprising to see any of the others retained.

All the talk at the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline a month ago was centered around the bold acquisitions made by the Oakland Athletics and the Detroit Tigers, with the A’s acquiring Jon Lester from the Boston Red Sox and the Tigers acquiring David Price from the Tampa Bay Rays. While Oakland and Detroit have had their share of struggles since acquiring their lefty aces from the cellar of the American League East, another team has quietly risen to the top in the American League. It’s hard to quietly do anything with all the power the Baltimore Orioles have in their lineup, but they have much less hype than the other good teams this year, and they were built by a group just as eager to prove themselves as Billy Beane.

Baltimore Orioles general manager Dan Duquette and field manager Buck Showalter have both earned reputations in the game of baseball as being he guys who can take a bad team and make them a playoff team, but will lose their job before they take a step further and become a real championship contender. Duquette was previously the GM of the Montreal Expos, where he built the best team of the strike-shortened 1994 season after trading for a dynamic and diminutive relief pitcher named Pedro Martinez from the Los Angeles Dodgers, and turning him into a starter. Later, as GM of the Boston Red Sox, Duquette would trade for Pedro again, just as Martinez was entering the epic prime of his pitching career. Duquette also acquired Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek in a trade with the Seattle Mariners, and signed Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez in free agency. Duquette was fired when the current Red Sox ownership group bought the team, and the narrative spun was that Duquette was the buffoon who let Roger Clemens leave as a free agent, when The Rocket had a solid decade of pitching at a high level left to do, but that was the Steroid Era, and conventional wisdom was being proven wrong all the time. With the team Duquette had already built, his replacement, Theo Epstein, inherited a much easier situation to turn around quickly than the one Epstein currently has to deal with in Chicago, because Duquette had already done most of the leg work in getting the Red Sox back to the World Series. It took Duquette ten years to get another GM position in Major League Baseball, but he has a pretty good thing going in Baltimore right now.

Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette

Buck Showalter managed the New York Yankees in the early 1990s, but was fired in 1995. In 1996, Joe Torre led the Yankees to their first World Series title since 1978, and they would go on to win it again in 1998, 1999, and 2000, and win the American League Pennant two more times in 2001 and 2003, helping Torre land in the Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this summer. After New York, Showalter managed the National League expansion franchise, the Arizona Diamondbacks, but was fired in 2000. In 2001, the D-Backs, led by ace pitchers Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson, were the team that knocked off the Yankees in a thrilling seven game World Series. Showalter managed the Texas Rangers from 2003 to 2006, but did not have a team with World Series potential. In 2010, he was hired by the Orioles, and has helped them get better and better. Right now, he and Duquette seem to make a really good team, and against all odds are running away with the AL East Division Championship.

Every team goes through adversity over the span of a 162 game regular season, but the Orioles have certainly had more than their fair share, but keep on winning. In a year when exciting young third baseman Manny Machado has taken a step backwards in his development and maturity, and they lost star catcher Matt Wieters to season ending Tommy John Surgery (a rare procedure for a catcher, but they have to make as many throws as the pitcher, so I guess it makes sense), they keep finding ways to score and keep finding ways to win. They’ve certainly been helped by the struggles of the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, and Blue Jays this season, but saying that the division is weak would discredit what the O’s have done this year.

They may not have the starting pitching of Oakland or Detroit, but the Baltimore Orioles certainly have as good a lineup as any team in baseball. Even without Wieters, they have a deep core of hitting that includes Manny Machado, Chris Davis, Adam Jones, and Nelson Cruz. Those are four professional hitters that will make any pitching staff earn their money.

The thing about baseball is that it’s not all about pitching (and that’s why you hardly ever see a cleanup hitter traded away by a playoff team in the middle of the season, even if you’re getting a pitcher like Jon Lester in return), and it’s not all about hitting. It’s not all about the advanced statistics, and it’s not all about old school baseball wisdom all the time, either. You have to find a balance, and even then, something can go wrong. The beautiful thing about baseball is that it can’t be scripted, and you can have the best team all year, but be out of it in three games if the bats go cold. It’s all about getting hot at the right time, and while there’s still a month before the playoffs, it’s looking like Baltimore is the hot team in 2014. They’ve been through a lot, but this isn’t the year for the Orioles to be making excuses. They have plenty of solutions.

Boston is usually involved in a few rumors this time of year, but not usually like this. Sitting in the basement of the AL East and with a handful of teams ahead of them in the Wild Card standings, the defending World Series champs are in sell mode. Jon Lester is the biggest name connected to rumors, with John Lackey, Andrew Miller, Stephen Drew and Jonny Gomes all on the sell list as well.

Dan Duquette was the man who brought Pedro Martinez to town, and a few years later added Manny Ramirez to that mix. What he couldn’t bring was that long-awaited World Series title, but “The Duke” certainly made moves that helped that process come to fruition in 2004.

He acquired two of those pieces in a 1997 deadline day deal that sent then-closer Heathcliff Slocumb, who Red Sox fans had a high level of dislike towards at the time of the trade, to Seattle for a pair of prospects. Those prospects were Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek.

Lowe would spend eight years with the Red Sox, enjoying success as a starter and temporarily as a closer. He saved an AL-leading 42 games in 2000 when Boston was having closer trouble, and then went 21-8 as a starter in 2002. While there were a few hiccups along the way, Lowe went 70-55 and notched 85 saves with an impressive 3.72 ERA in his eight seasons as a member of the Red Sox. His final season was his most memorable, as Lowe got the win in all three of Boston’s clinching games en route to the franchise’s first World Series title in 86 years.

As good as Lowe was, Varitek would be even better. Spending his entire 15-year career in Boston, Varitek was named just the third team captain in franchise history in 2004, a position he held until his retirement following the 2011 season. He was a leader in the clubhouse and a calming presence behind the plate,catching four no-hitters throughout his career.

He was a fan favorite before, but won over all of Red Sox nation after smushing Alex Rodriguez’s face in 2004:

Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek tussles with New York Yankees batter Alex Rodriguez at Fenway Park in Boston. The two fought after Rodriguez was hit by a pitch by Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo. (Photo by J Rogash/Getty Images)

Slocumb went on to record 16 more saves over the final three years of his career.

With Varitek struggling as his career winded down, the Red Sox needed an upgrade behind the plate and in their lineup at the 2009 deadline. So Theo Epstein dealt some promising prospects to acquire Victor Martinez from the Cleveland Indians.

Martinez was a solid addition for the Red Sox in his season-and-a-half in Boston, batting .313 in 183 regular season games, splitting time at first base and behind the plate. But Boston let V-Mart go when he became a free agent in 2010, signing a four-year $50 million contract with the Detroit Tigers, leaving the Red Sox with little to show for the deal.

Meanwhile, Masterson turned into Cleveland’s ace (though he went just 48-61 in his six years with the tribe) and was an arm the Red Sox could have used in recent years.

In 2008, “Manny being Manny” was no longer cute and funny, rather distracting and sometimes a bit violent. The slugger was unhappy in his eighth season in Boston, and stopped running to first on ground balls (even more so than usual) when he wasn’t removing himself from the lineup. He also got into two physical altercations during the season; the first in the dugout with teammate Kevin Youkilis over his over-reaction to a strikeout, and the second with 64-year-old traveling secretary Jack McCormick for not fulfilling a large ticket request.

So Epstein traded the disinterested and disgruntled slugger who helped the team win two World Series to the L.A. Dodgers, sending outfielder Brandon Moss and pitcher Craig Hansen to Pittsburgh and acquiring Jason Bay from Pittsburgh to fill the void left in left field.

Bay was solid for the 2008 Red Sox down the stretch and in the playoffs, batting .412 with a pair of homers in their ALDS sweep of the Angels, but the team fell to the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS. He put up career-numbers in 2009, leading the Red Sox with 36 homers and driving in 119 runs, but he was not re-signed as a free agent after the season. He agreed to a four-year, $66 million contract with the New York Mets, and the Red Sox struggled to put together a reliable outfield throughout the 2010 season.

Luckily, Craig Hansen forgot how to throw a baseball, so the Sox didn’t end up giving up too much to rid themselves of Ramirez.

7/31/04: Red Sox Acquire Dave Roberts from Dodgers for Henri Stanley

The trade was just a footnote given Epstein’s first move of the day, but it ended up being a pretty important move. We’ll let a picture tell this story:

Dave Roberts steals second base in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

With Mariano Rivera on the mound, Roberts famously swiped second as the Red Sox were clinging to life in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees, later scoring the game-tying run. The steal sparked a dramatic comeback not just in that game but the series, as Boston made the historic comeback from a 3-0 series hole.

Dave Roberts is a man who should never have to buy a beer in Boston again.

This was the trade that made Theo Epstein. It was a gutsy move sending the face of the franchise, albeit a disgruntled face of the franchise, out of town for a pair of defensive-minded players, but it was exactly the shakeup the 2004 Red Sox needed.

Cabrera was a wizard at short and solidified Boston’s infield defense, in addition to creating some pretty amazing celebratory high-fives. Mientkiewicz served as a great defensive replacement for late innings. Neither went on to have a long career with the Red Sox, but both played a big role in bringing the franchise their first World Series title since 1918. It’s also a deadline day that will go down as one of the more important dates in Red Sox history.

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Tue, 24 Jun 2014 20:26:40 +0000ccoylecbslocalhttps://seattle.cbslocal.com/2014/06/24/top-3-noteworthy-trades-mariners-and-red-sox/Trades have arguably haunted the Seattle Mariners’ franchise more than any other team in Major League Baseball. Each week we’ll compile the three most-noteworthy trades that have happened between the Mariners and their current opponent.

The Boston Red Sox have been the most-successful franchise in Major League Baseball in the past decade — and there are three World Series trophies to prove it. Two of those championship teams (2004, 2007) had a former Mariners prospect who blossomed into one of the league’s better catchers of the past 25 years: Jason Varitek.

Here are the three most significant trades the Mariners have made with the Red Sox:

3. 1999: Mariners trade Butch Huskey to the Red Sox for Robert Ramsay

Butch Huskey in 1999 (Photo credit: Tom Hauck/Allsport/Getty Images)

How it panned out:

This trade didn’t do anything for either franchise, it simply gave us an excuse to incorporate one of the best bloopers of all-time (which occurred during Butch Huskey’s short tenure with Seattle):

Jason Varitek as a catcher for Georgia Tech in the 1994 College Baseball World Series (Photo by: Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)

How it panned out:

If there is one trade in the recent history of Major League Baseball that demonstrates a “selling” team capitalizing on a “buying” team’s mistake, it is this one.

At the trade deadline of the 1997, Seattle stood at 60-47, leading the American League West by just a half-game with a team built to be a contender down the stretch. On the other hand, Boston’s playoff aspirations had disintegrated as the team was 17 and a half games out of first place in the AL East. To bolster its bullpen, Seattle sent minor league catcher Jason Varitek and minor league pitcher Derek Lowe to the Red Sox in exchange for reliever Heathcliff Slocumb.

The Mariners indeed made it to the playoffs in ’97, but Slocumb had little to do with it. In his first month with the team, Slocumb went 0-3 with a 5.63 ERA out of the ‘pen. In his only appearance in the postseason, he saw two innings on the mound in which he surrendered one run on three hits. Seattle was knocked out of the American League Divisional Series and a season later Slocumb departed for free agency.

Varitek would spend his entire big league career in a Red Sox uniform and would serve as the team’s captain for several of those seasons. He played on two World Series champion teams and was a three-time All-Star who was a serious contender for the AL MVP Award in 2005.

Lowe, also an All-Star on multiple occasions, serviced Boston well with a 100-inning season in relief, a 42-save season and a 21-win campaign.

Winner:

Boston. The Mariners got a veteran to help the bullpen during a playoff run while the Red Sox got two players that helped shape the most competitive MLB franchise of the past decade.

1. 1996: Mariners trade Darren Bragg to Red Sox for Jamie Moyer

Jamie Moyer in 2001 (Photo credit: Matt Campbell/AFP/Getty Images)

How it panned out:

Mariners fans probably weren’t very receptive to the Darren Bragg-for-Jamie Moyer deal when it happened — they probably were apathetic, actually.

Bragg had .272/.376/.451 line at the time of being dealt, but wasn’t getting enough playing time in a relatively crowded outfield (Ken Griffey Jr., Jay Buhner, Rich Amaral and Brian Hunter).

Moyer, a journeyman starter, was having a decent season in Boston in 1996, recording seven wins in 10 starts on top of a 4.50 ERA. But in the big picture, Seattle would be Moyer’s seventh organization since being drafted in 1984.

It came as no surprise that Bragg’s bat didn’t catch fire in Boston, and much like in Seattle, he ended up platooning an outfield spot for the better part of two years with the Red Sox.

What was not expected was that Moyer ended up spending eleven seasons in Seattle and logged 145 of his 269 (54%) of his wins in a Mariners uniform. The lefty became the winningest pitcher in the franchise’s history from mid-1996 to mid-2006.

Winner:

Seattle. Moyer gave the Mariners 2,093 innings of work, 20 complete games, six shutouts — and was Seattle’s beast weapon in the 2001 postseason. As a 38-year-old workhorse, Moyer won all three starts, allowing only four earned runs in 19 innings on the hill.

Moyer’s accomplishments off the field is something to be noted as well. The Moyer Foundation, started by Jamie and his wife Karen, is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children in severe distress.

]]>https://beantownbirthdays.mlblogs.com/2014/06/01/june-1-happy-birthday-derek-lowe-2/
Sun, 01 Jun 2014 12:45:38 +0000mlblogsbeantownbirthdayshttps://beantownbirthdays.mlblogs.com/2014/06/01/june-1-happy-birthday-derek-lowe-2/The Seattle Mariners traded catcher Jason Varitek and today’s Beantown Baseball Birthday Celebrant to Boston for closer Heathcliff Slocumb at the 1997 trading deadline. It turned out to be one of the greatest deals in Red Sox franchise history. Varitek became the captain and anchor of those great Red Sox teams that won two World Championships during the first decade of the new century. All Derek Lowe did for Boston was first become the team’s ace closer for a couple of years including a 42 save season in 2000 and then convert to the Red Sox starting rotation and become a 20-game winner in 2002. He also pitched brilliantly during the 2004 postseason culminating in Boston’s first World Series victory since 1918. And then surprisingly, Boston let him walk away as a free agent.

Lowe was born in Dearborn, Michigan in 1973 and after graduating from high school there, he became the eighth-round choice of the Mariners in the 1991 MLB amateur draft. It took him right about six seasons of minor league ball to earn his first start in the Majors in 1997. When Boston acquired him that same season, they sent Lowe right to the bullpen and with the exception of 10 starts during the 1998 season, he was used strictly as a reliever and then closer until the very end of the 2001 season, when he made three consecutive starts. That turned out to be a preview of what was to come for the big 6’6″ right-hander.

His career in Beantown ended right after Lowe pitched great during the 2004 postseason, winning all three of his decisions. The Dodgers outbid everyone, including Boston for his services. He left the Red Sox with a career record of 70-55 with 85 career saves. His big league career ended in 2013. His lifetime record was 176-157.

Click the four-arrow icon on the bottom right to watch this video in full screen!

“Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez poses with the 2004, 2007, and 2013 World Series rings during the 2004 team reunion at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Wednesday, May 28, 2014.”

“A banner is unfurled over the Green Monster during a pre-game ceremony honoring the ten year anniversary and team reunion of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Wednesday, May 28, 2014.”

“Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling and son Gehrig are introduced during a pre-game ceremony honoring the ten year anniversary and team reunion of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Wednesday, May 28, 2014.”

“Former Boston Red Sox pitchers Derek Lowe and Pedro Martinez are introduced during a pre-game ceremony honoring the ten year anniversary and team reunion of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Wednesday, May 28, 2014.”

“Former Boston Red Sox players walk off the field after being introduced during a pre-game ceremony honoring the ten year anniversary and team reunion of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Wednesday, May 28, 2014.”

“The Boston Red Sox host a pre-game ceremony honoring the ten year anniversary and team reunion of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Wednesday, May 28, 2014.”

It’s been ten years since the Boston Red Sox ended the 86-year “Curse of the Bambino” and won their first World Series title since 1918. That legendary 2004 team is back in Boston this week, and last night, they took part in a ceremony before a game against the Atlanta Braves.

It’s always neat to see all these guys come back to Fenway Park. Here’s a quick multimedia piece we produced for the Red Sox Instagram account, as well as some stills from the ceremony.

After posting a 4.14 ERA (17 ER/37.0 IP) in April, Kluber has surrendered just 8 runs on 29 hits in May while registering a Major League-high 48 strikeouts across his 35.2 innings (5 starts) this month.

With his nine strikeouts on Saturday against the Orioles (9-0 Indians win), Kluber improved to 5-3 and now is second in the Majors with 83 strikeouts (David Price, 84). His strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.88 is 10th in the Majors and his strikeouts-per-nine innings rate of 10.28 is fifth in MLB.

Kluber is 3-0 in May with a 2.02 ERA (8 ER/35.2 IP), while notching a Major League-high 48 strikeouts and just 7 walks…has pitched into the 7th inning in each start, while limiting opposing batters to a .221 (29-131), average against.

With 9 strikeouts on Saturday, Kluber became the first player in the Majors this season to record 5 straight 8+ SO performances…Johnny Cueto, Jose Fernandez, Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke and Felix Hernandez have each reeled off 4 consecutive such starts this season.

STAMPING HIS NAME

Kluber has logged a pair of historic performances through his first 10 starts of the 2014 season, including his first career complete game on April 24 vs. Kansas City and a career-high 13-strikeout effort on May 4 vs. Chicago-AL.

APRIL 24 vs. KC

His first career complete game on April 24 vs. KC marked first complete game thrown by any Indians hurler other than JUSTIN MASTERSON (had thrown each of last 4) since DEREK LOWE on May 15, 2012 at MIN.

Also marked first complete game by an Indians pitcher with a double-digit strikeout total and no walks since CC SABATHIA on Sept. 7, 2005 at DET (9.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R-ER, 0 BB, 10 SO).

Was first complete game by an Indians pitcher w/ 11 strikeouts, no walks and no earned runs since LEN BARKER’s 3-0 perfect game on May 15, TOR (9.0 IP, 11 SO); just the 7th such effort by an Indians pitcher dating back to 1914.

MAY 4 vs. CWS

Kluber’s 13 strikeouts on May 4 vs. CWS established a new career high, and tied him with CC Sabathia , Chuck Finley and Dave Burba for the club record accomplished by Tribe pitchers at Progressive Field.

Set a new Indians record when he fanned 7 consecutive batters through innings 3-5… the previous record of 6 was shared by Bob Feller , Bartolo Colon, Chuck Finley and Mitch Talbot.

After striking out 11 batters in his previous home start (aforementioned complete game), Kluber became the first Tribe pitcher to strike out 11 or more batters in consecutive home starts since Dennis Eckersley on August 13 & 23, 1976.

Acquired at the 2004 trade deadline for Jose Contreras and cash, Loaiza had a distinctive catching glove.

That’s him in the background of the card, attempting to back up home plate on August 9, 2004.

The Yankees won the first three games of the August 6-9 weekend wraparound series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and led the Boston Red Sox by 10.5 games in the AL East. That was before Dave Roberts, David Ortiz, Derek Lowe and the Boston Red Sox burned the Yankees for their historic ALCS comeback that fall.
Loaiza toed the rubber for the Monday afternoon finale and gave up two runs in the first inning.
The Jays still led 2-0 in the top of the fifth. That’s where the action on the front of this card took place.
Orlando Hudson led off with a single and reached third when Vernon Wells followed with a single.
Carlos Delgado came up next and lofted the 1-1 pitch to right fielder Kenny Lofton.
Hudson tagged up and slid home ahead of the throw with Loaiza racing to back up the plate.
Toronto pushed the lead to 5-0 before the Yankees made things interesting.
Bernie Williams and Hideki Matsui each hit two-run home runs in the late innings, but the Jays held on for the 5-4 win.